Invisible
by Roniturtle
Summary: After attacking and beating up a mugger, Raphael Hamato is found guilty of being cold, angry and hateful toward humans and mutants alike, so he is sentenced by the state to one year of invisibility. Can he make it through the year without going insane and finally learn what it means to care. Raph's POV. Just a long one shot. Not my turtles but my AU. Please review.


Invisible

It was a year and three months ago that I was in a room very much like this one, staring at a small black box on a wall and shackled to the same chair, waiting for something to happen. Of course, the last time I was in this room, I had no idea what was going to happen; I was cocky, angry and filled with hate. So much hate in fact, that my father and brother had no idea what to do with me. Even our friends were becoming tired of me and my attitude. They stopped asking me to go places with them and I found myself becoming more and more agitated over every little thing.

Then finally, one night it happened. My bro and I was walking down the street when we came across a guy being mugged, which wasn't something that happened these days. Ya see, our world has become a little more advanced then what it once was. The government now has these things called drones that fly throughout our city and keeps an eye on everything that goes on around here so there's very little crime. Except this one time, well, we saw this mugging occurring, my bro and I decided we had to step in and stop it. So my bro, his name's Leo, he runs after the mugger and tells me to call an ambulance for the guy who was lying on the ground. But I didn't listen to him; instead I took off after the mugger leaving the guy who just got mugged on the ground all alone. When I caught up to Leo, he had the mugger on the ground with his arms behind him. He had everything under control but I got so angry at what I had seen, I yelled at the guy and just started wailing on him, don't know why but I just couldn't control myself. Leo actually had to stop _me_ by grabbing me and pulling _me_ off the son-of-a-bitch.

We yelled at each other for a bit while we dragged the mugger back to where the other guy was. After he was done accusing me of being a hot head, Leo called the ambulance. Ya see; I hate it when my bro tells me what to do, and as far as I was concern, the guy who got mugged wasn't going anywhere; after all; he was unconscious.

But I was wrong. Not only was he unconscious but he had a serious head injury. He was in a coma for two days before he finally woke up, if you can call waking up in a vegetable state being awake. Even if the mugger was to blame, my bro and the guy's family were actually angry at me for not helping him like Leo told me to.

"Why didn't you listen to me Raph?" Leo demanded, looking at me with anger blazing in his eyes, "I was taking care of the robber, you should have done what I asked and called the ambulance!"

"So what are you saying Leo?" I yelled back at him, "That if I had stayed with the guy he would be perfectly fine?"

"No that's not what I'm saying Raph, I'm saying you should have just stayed with him till help arrived." He told me, "Instead you ran after the other guy, which I already took care of, and to do what?!" I watched him huff then turn away from me, "Beat him to a pulp?!" I use to hate it when Leo got angry with me, it made me wanna beat _him_ to a pulp, but he only continued, "Next time, just do what I say and take care of the injured man while I take care of the mugger." He started walking away from me, "With your attitude, who knows what injuries you caused him."

"Yeah well next time, why don't you stay with the guy who got mugged and I'll…."

"Do what, kill his attacker?" Leo knows me too well sometimes, "After all, their just people Raph, and sometimes I think you forget that."

"Yeah well I ain't people, Leo," I told him turning away to go to my room, "Sometimes I think _you_ forget that."

I guess I should explain what I mean by that, ya see, my bro and I as well as our dad, aren't human, we're mutant turtles and our father is a mutant rat and up until about ten years ago, we weren't really welcomed in this city, or any city for that matter. In fact, no mutant was, then people found out about all us mutants that live around here and slowly, people started opening up to us. Some people were still scared of what we were but others, they were willing to accept us and in time, we became what everyone else was, part of the public and expected to abide by the same laws they were.

Well, it turned out the guy who I beat up decided to sue me, so about two weeks after the mugging, I was arrested and dragged into a room with a chair that had shackles on the arms. Two armed guards made me sit down and put the shackles on me, next thing I knew, a disembodied voice sounded from this black box on a wall.

"Raphael Hamato, you have been charged with being cold, angry and filled with hate." The voice said. I only sighed in annoyance and didn't respond.

Then the guard on my right slapped my arm. "Answer him!" He yelled at me.

"Yes," I muttered reluctantly.

"Your family, your friends and the one you attacked have all been interviewed and given statements of your behavior and you have been found guilty of not caring about your fellow human beings….."

"I ain't human!" I yelled at the box, only to be slapped again by the guard. "You speak when spoken to!" He yelled at me. I scowled at him but shut my mouth anyway.

"As I was saying," The voice continued, "Guilty of not caring for your fellow human beings or your fellow mutants." I rolled my eyes but said nothing to the charge, "For this you will be sentenced to one year of invisibility."

"One year?" I said incredulously, "You're going to make me invisible for one whole year!" I scoffed at him, "So what, are you going to put me a dungeon or something?" I started laughing mockingly, "Or maybe you got some kind of magic spell to make me disappear?" A hard slap to my face by the guard had me shutting my mouth again. But trust me; he saw the anger in my eyes and heard the growl in my throat.

While the one guard and I looked angrily at each other, the guard to my left walked away from us toward a small box sitting on a table in the corner of the room while the voice continued to let me know of my fate. "We have set up an apartment on the other side of town for you; a delivery boy will bring groceries once a week and arrangements have already been made for your family to have your things delivered," He told me, "You will be relieved of your phone and there will be no computer for you at your house, all outside contact with the world is forbidden."

"Yeah, yeah whatever," I sneered, getting tired of the whole thing, "Let's just get this over with, okay!"

The guard with the box opened it and pulled out a round, metal, black bowl with control buttons around it. He walked back over to me and stood to the side. "Do you have any final words?" The disembodied voice demanded.

"Yeah, I got some words for you," I said loudly, "If you think making me 'invisible' for one year is going to do anything to me, you got another thing coming!" I started laughing again, "I can do a year standing on my head! This isn't going to do anything to me; you and the rest of your human scum can just kiss my ass you bunch of…." Before I could continue, the black bowl-like helmet was placed on my head and a strange whirling noise sounded in my ears. I froze, expecting to feel sharp excruciating pain run through my brain but I was surprised to feel….absolutely nothing.

Within seconds, the helmet was removed and the guard on my left put the helmet back in the box, the guard to my right unshackled me and stood way off to my side. "So that's it?" I asked them, watching as they stood at attention and said nothing, their eyes looking straight ahead and ignoring me. "That didn't even hurt." I said as I stood up and prepared to leave the room. The two guards turned away from me and without any word, walked out the room leaving me completely alone. I ran my hand over my forehead and felt a large bump right in the middle of it. "So that's all you're going to do huh," I started laughing as I walked out the room, "This will be a piece of cake!" I yelled as I walked toward the exit and out the building, not realizing everyone around me kept their heads and their eyes turned away from me.

xxxxxxxxxx

The first three months of my invisibility really wasn't a big deal, I went to the apartment the government set up for me. I didn't like it much, it was a studio apartment in a rundown neighborhood, not many neighbors, but the few neighbors I did have never acknowledged me. But then, why would they, I was invisible after all. Like the disembodied voice said, a delivery guy brought groceries to my place once a week, and even though he had a list of what I requested, half the food was wrong. But I dealt with it, after all I had to eat something, and I found out right away I either take the groceries quickly or someone else takes it instead. But after the third month came and went, I started going stir crazy, so I decided to venture beyond the neighborhood and get some normal food and see what was going on in the city of good old New York.

I made my way to my favorite pizza place, Antonio's. He always had my favorite pizza on hand, meat lovers with extra cheese, and he was always willing to give me an extra slice at no additional cost on account of me and Leo stopped a robbery at his place a few years ago. Speaking of my bro, I also thought I'd check on him and dad after having lunch, but that was the day when reality ended up hitting me hard right between the eyes.

"Hey Antonio!" I yelled out as I walked into his restaurant. I watched happily as he turned to me with a big smile on his face that quickly faded away when he saw the mark on my forehead. "I'll take my usual." I told him as I made my way to the counter, "And a large soda along with it, okay?" I pulled out my money, but when he turned away from me and refused my order, I started getting angry. "What's going on Antonio?" I demanded when he walked to the other side of the counter and started taking another customer's order; he only gave me a quick, nervous glance before continuing with the other person.

"Fine," I said as I made my way behind his counter and over to where a pizza warmer held five fresh newly baked pizzas, "I'll help myself." I gathered my food and drink and laid my money by his register; I then walked toward the tables and sat at one where a fellow mutant turtle was talking to a human girl. "Hey Mikey," I said as I sat across from him, "How's it going?"

Mikey, one of my best friends, turned to look at me with a mouth full of pizza. But as soon as his gaze fell on the 'invisible' mark, he looked at me with dismay and shook his head. "Raph?" he said as his eyes looked away.

"Hey Mikey, come on," I said with a chuckle, "Don't let this bother you, it's no big deal."

Mikey and his friend started to stand up, "Yes it is Raph," Mikey said as the two of them quickly gathered their food and left the pizza place.

I watched them leave with a look of shock on my face. After they left I looked around the room and noticed everyone there was doing everything they could to not look at me. Some of them were kids and the adults with them were clearly explaining to them what the mark on my forehead was all about, others were giving me a pity attitude while some were looking at me in disgust. Like I had no right to be there at all! Fine, to hell with all of them, I picked up my food and left. I still wanted to go to my dad's house but after what just happened, I decided against it. On my way back to my apartment, I started to take a good look at everyone around me and realized every single person was doing what they could to avoid eye contact with me. No one would look at me, those that did would quickly avert their eyes and keep their heads down; kids looked at me strangely before their parent told them to look away. I couldn't get to my apartment fast enough, and now I knew; now I understood what it meant to be….invisible.

I tried to find a way to become un-invisible. I found a hat in the dumpster and placed it on my head, I pulled it down to where it covered the mark but these government jerks thought of everything. As soon as the mark came in contact with the hat, it began to burn right through and the mark showed once again.

So I decided it was hopeless to do anything about it so I tried to stay in my place and not venture out, I didn't need to see those assholes ignoring me the way they did, or give me sly looks with the pity attitude or hear the whispers. But the longer I stayed in this small cramped apartment, the more I was certain I would go insane. Three more months went by and I finally decided that I had to see my dad and bro. They wouldn't turn away from me; after all, we were family.

"Dad!" I knocked on the door hard, demanding they let me in. "Leo!" I yelled out, I knew they were in there, I could hear them talking, and it was clear they were torn about not opening the door to me. "Please, let me in!" I begged, "I need to see you!"

"This is wrong father," I heard Leo say, "It's not right to turn away from him." For the first time in my life, I swear I could hear my big bro crying.

"It is the law Leonardo," My dad said with a forced voice, "It is hard but in the end, he will be better for it." I looked in the window and watched as my dad walked away from the door with very slow and difficult steps, while Leo looked at the door with tears running down his face. When he saw me looking at him with a pleading look, he put his hands over his eyes and turned away from the door.

"Leo!" I screamed as he turned and ran up the stairs to our rooms, "Please Leo! Don't leave me out here, I need you!" But it was no use, I was invisible, and when you're invisible everyone, even your family is required by law to ignore you, so I went home, and for the first time in _my_ life, _I_ cried myself to sleep.

Eight months into my sentence, and life was killing me, I would walk the town, keeping my head low, trying hard not to look at people. I'd run into my friends a couple of times and they would just turn and walk the other way. I started to feel like I had the plaque, damn them. Couldn't they see the pain I was in? Why didn't they care? I couldn't understand how people could be so cruel.

At one point, I decided that since everyone was going to ignore me, I might as well take advantage of being invisible; I walked into the grocery store the delivery boy worked at and gathered the food I wanted. Then I went to the liquor store and helped myself to some of the hard stuff. Mind you now, I didn't steal, I always left money for what I took, it was just easy to walk to the head of the line and put it on the counter then walk out without anyone saying anything to me. But that got old fast. I even walked into a girl's gym one time, thought I'd have a little fun and get a sneak peek at what I was missing. I walked into the gym and looked around at all those girls working out. I smirked when I saw them look at me in shock but as soon as they saw the mark, they looked away. I told myself this would be something fun to do, until I walked into their locker room.

There were dozens of pretty girls walking around in bathing suits, workout suits or just towels, and I just stood there, admiring the view knowing no one would stop me. Why? Because I was invisible, but that was only a word, in reality, I wasn't invisible, I was just someone no one was allowed to look at or speak to or acknowledge. So when I saw them looking uncomfortable, the smirk on my face slowly faded away and the fun, well, that faded away too, very quickly I might add.

As I stood there watching them, I realized I was becoming the exact thing I hated most, a bully, a criminal, a jerk. Only someone like that would stand there and watch women like this. So I left, as quickly as I came I walked out of that gym, angry at myself for what I had done. I was so angry and so ashamed I wasn't looking where I was going and banged into someone. I looked up to see another turtle looking back at me. I couldn't help but stare at him, he looked so lost and afraid, and he had the mark on him too.

"I'm sorry," I said as he walked around me.

"It's okay," He muttered as he tried to quickly walk away.

"Hey wait," I called after him. I swallowed hard as he stopped and turned back to me, "My names Raphael, since you're invisible and I'm invisible, why don't we go somewhere and talk?" I asked hopefully. He looked like he wanted to do just that, be with someone who knew exactly what he was going through.

But, with tears in his eyes, he only shook his head, "I can't…we can't." He hesitated to continue down the street, it was clear he wanted to speak with me and maybe have someone to confide in like I did, but he forced himself to turn and continued to walk away from me.

At about the eleventh month, I was going out of my mind, I started talking to myself, walking down the street and pretending I was happy with the way things were. I yelled at people who stared at me like I was going mad, and at some point, I probably was. Then one night, I was walking home from Antonio's. Yeah, I still went there and got the pizza I liked; I still endured people ignoring me. But this particular night was harder than the others.

You see, a blind guy sat across from me and actually started to talk to me, and it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.

"Is anyone sitting here?" The guy asked.

I looked up at him in shock, it had been almost eleven whole months since someone spoke to me like that and at first I thought I was dreaming it. I quickly moved my things from the table so he could have room. "No, please have a seat." I told him. I was actually ecstatic when he sat down and I could actually feel my heart pounding in my ears when he reached across the table to shake my hand.

"My name is Murakami," He told me as we shook hands.

"I'm Raphael," I told him with a voice shaking with excitement. So long! It had been so long that anyone would speak with me, I felt like I was going to burst with laughter.

"Very busy in here today, isn't it?" He asked, "I do hope you don't mind sharing a table with a blind old man."

"No, not at all," I said quickly as his hands began to carefully reach for his water glass. I picked it up intending to put it into his hands when a waitress walked by our table. I watched in dismay as she bent down and whispered the one word I dreaded hearing.

"Invisible."

Murakami's face quickly contorted into anger, "Damn you," He said as he stood up angrily, "Trying to get people into trouble!" he grabbed his tray and angrily stormed away from me, walking with aide of the waitress to another table where a seat was available.

I had less than a month of my sentence left so I decided I might as well spend it in solitude in my apartment. So I got up and left, leaving half my pizza untouched. As I walked back to my apartment, I heard noise from across the street and watched two purple dragons trying to break into a car. They saw me coming and laughed at me when they saw the mark on my head.

"Invisible," I heard one of them say and they continued to force the door open.

Normally, I would have attempted to try and stop them, but what was the point, I was so depressed and all alone, I had no phone and no way to call the police so even if I wanted to stop them, what was I to do after that? Even if I could call the police, as soon as they showed up they would do what everyone else did and ignore me, or maybe I would be the one arrested and those Dragon jerks would be released, so I continued to walk to my apartment. But the noise of a car coming toward me had me turning to see those damn Purple idiots coming toward me in an attempt to run me down, so the next thing I knew, I was running for my life.

I thanked every god I could think of when I used my martial arts knowledge to get me out of a dangerous situation. As the car came toward me, I was able jump over another car and survive almost being smashed in between the two cars, but as the one car slammed into the other, it hit me as I landed on the other side and searing pain radiated through my shell. It was then I realized the second car hit me with such force it cracked my shell and broke my leg.

Every breath I took was more painful than the last and it was everything I could do to get off the ground and get away before the Purple Dragons tried to run me down again. As painful as it was, I screamed as loud as I could for help but either no one heard me or I was just ignored. I was practically on the verge of passing out when I finally made it to my building and it felt like an eternity before I finally reached the door to the first apartment.

I knew the person was home, they hardly ever ventured out since they were invisible too, but I had hoped they would take pity and help me so I weakly pounded on their door. I heard them moving about but their door remained closed.

"Please," I weakly said through gritted teeth, "I'm injured, I need help." They never answered. "Can you at least try to get someone for me?" I asked as I slowly sank to the ground, but they never opened the door. Seeing as they weren't going to do anything for me, I slowly dragged myself to my place, three apartments down, and after struggling to unlock my door, made it to my bed where I laid for the next several days, moaning and groaning in excruciating agony as my body healed itself.

I knew I was feverish when I began to hallucinate and started seeing Leo standing over my bed. He shook his head and wagged his finger at me. "Really Raph," Phantom Leo said, "You wouldn't be in this mess if you had just listened to me and done what I said."

"Oh go to hell Leo," I responded weakly, "You always have to try and tell me what to do, think you're so special, dad's favorite." I attempted to laugh but it hurt too much, "Why do you think I don't listen to you, because you like to boss me around. That guy got what he deserved."

"How do you know what I deserved?" Another voice started speaking and I blinked in surprise at seeing the mugger standing next to my bro, "After all, who made you judge and jury?"

"I did," I muttered to him, "What gives you the right to attack people?"

"What gave you the right to attack me?" My apparition countered, "After all, you don't know why I did what I did." He waved his hand at his clothes, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I was desperate? Maybe I have no place to go and hadn't eaten in days?" I looked him over and realized his clothes were torn and filthy, he looked sick, starving almost, "You wonder how people can be so cruel, well, I wondered how you could be so cruel."

"It's my anger, I blame humans for that." I told him.

"I'm human," Another voice said and I looked up to see my friend Casey, "Are you telling me I did something to make you so angry Raph?"

"No Case, of course not," I told him, "But you're one of the few."

"You should look around more Raphie," Now my best friend Mikey was talking to me, "There are so many humans that have friended us; you're just too blind and angry to see."

"Perhaps you're right Mike." I told him, "Perhaps my anger issues go deeper."

"I have tried so hard to help you with your anger my son," I looked over to see Splinter looking down at me.

"Father," I choked out, "I know you have, and I'm so sorry," I said as tears started to flow down my cheeks, "I always thought you were disappointed in me so I never wanted to hear what you had to say."

"Oh my beautiful Raphael," Splinter looked at me with such love I wanted desperately to believe he was here, "I have always been proud of you my son."

"We all have Raph," Leo said as he started to fade away from me along with the other apparitions, "I just wish you let us tell you that."

"I'm sorry," I said, sobbing with every word, "I'm so sorry everyone."

I must have passed out at some point, and I must have stayed unconscious for a long time because when I came to, the pain was gone, my fever was gone and I felt a strange new feeling come over me, like a new dawning had filled my mind and I was someone else, someone better than before. I got out of bed and opened a window, the air was fresh and the day was bright and beautiful. But I didn't venture out, I had a few days before my year would be up and I decided I would spend that time in my apartment, just enjoying being me.

I had just finished cleaning the apartment when the door began to open and the two guards came in carrying the box with the helmet inside.

"Has it been a year?" I asked hopefully, as they sat the box on the table and took out the helmet. They stood to the side, saying nothing but clearly waiting for me to come to them. "Oh yeah," I said excitedly as I made my way over to where they were, "I forgot." I sat down and held back a happy shout as they placed the helmet on my head and the whirling noise was heard once again.

As soon as the helmet was removed, I felt ran my hand over my forehead and, feeling nothing, ran to my bathroom mirror. "It's gone!" I said with a giddy voice, "I'm no longer invisible."

"Welcome back citizen," One of the guards said, "It's good to see you again."

I started laughing, "It's good to be seen," I told him with tears in my eyes, "I need to go see my family."

"But first," the other guard placed a hand on my shoulder, "A celebration drink," He smiled but I could see it was rather forced, "On us."

I didn't want to be rude but I really wanted to see my family and friends, "Thank you," I told him, "But could we possibly make it for another night, I have so much I want to do right now." I had attempted to make it past them and toward the door but the other guard stood in front of me.

"It's tradition," He told me expectantly.

I nodded nervously, "Well, if it's tradition." I said as I followed them out of my soon to be forgotten apartment and toward a nearby bar.

Several days later, Leo and I were walking out of Antonio's with supper for us and dad, "I can't believe my big bro is getting married!" I said, laughing hard, "How did Karai's dad take the news?"

Leo laughed right along with me, "I don't know and she doesn't care." He said as I stopped at a newsstand to purchase a newspaper.

"So when's the wedding?" I asked him as we continued down the street.

"We haven't set the date yet but I was hoping," He looked away shyly and I couldn't help but smile in amusement at him, "Will you be my best turtle?"

We stopped walking and I turned to him and gave him a hug, "Of course I will bro." I told him as we pulled apart.

"You know Raph," He began as we continued walking, "I wish we could have always talked like this."

I nodded at him, "I'm sorry I wasted our time together being angry Leo," I told him, "I really wish I could take it back but, hopefully I can make amends and we can start anew?"

Leo was happy with the idea and I was excited with the outlook of the future. But as we started walking, a sudden wind blew and I lost hold of the paper in my hand, it blew toward an alley and as I ran to retrieve it, a figure stepped out in front of me. It was the turtle I had run into during my sentence, and he still wore the invisible mark.

"Hi, remember me?" He asked hopefully, "I'm Donatello, we ran into each other a few months back." I looked up at him nervously then quickly turned away, gathering my paper and wanting desperately to get away from him.

"Please," The turtle said, "I just need someone to talk to, someone to let me know I'm still here." He was crying and I could feel my heart aching inside as I tried to walk away from him. "They told me I was uncaring and cold toward everyone," He continued, "That all I care about are my experiments, but they wouldn't listen to me," He explained desperately, "The experiments I was doing was to try and help both human and mutants alike but no one would listen."

I stopped walking and thought back to what happened to me when I was made to be invisible, no one listened to my side, and no one understood what I wanted to say. Yeah, I was angry and I attacked someone but why? Why wouldn't someone speak with me about it instead of sentencing me to a year of being ignored and looked down by everyone?

"Please," The turtle begged, "Why does no one care?" He cried harder into his hands, "How can everyone just ignore me, how can people be so cruel?"

I looked at Leo who was standing a few feet away from me with an anxious and pleading look; he could tell by the look on my face that we were not going to be going home anytime soon. So I turned back to the other turtle and grabbed his face, making him look at me. "Listen to me," I told him sternly as people all around stopped and watched me with surprised and wide eyes, " _You_ are **not** invisible, **_I see you_** ," I brought him into a fierce hug as drones surrounded us and began to warn me that I was breaking the law and would be arrested if I did not stop, "You are not invisible," I told him again as he wrapped his arms around me and cried hard into my shoulder, "And I do care."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

And now I'm sitting in this room again, staring at the black box on the wall and waiting to be made invisible once again, but this time, when they asked me if I had any last words, I would let them know how cold and cruel I think **they** are, and for the next year, I would walk around New York and wear my invisibility proudly and hold my head high letting everyone know what I did to deserve this mark, and this time…..I would not be standing alone.

~End~

So what does everyone think? Please R&R :) Peace.


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